As you can probably tell from the title and cover Go! Go! Birdie Chance (GGBC from now on) is a Golf-girl simulation game. This concept is surprisingly fresh even today as I've never seen a game quite like it. The great character designs on the cover, and the strangely addictive title were all it took to get me to purchase this baby.
The game itself is divided into 2 seperate modes, Story Mode and Round Mode. The Story Mode is basically a Golf-girl training simulation and is the meat of the game. Round Mode is just standard golf with 3 different courses and up to 3 players.
The basic concept of GGBC is that you are the new Coach. You have just been hired by the "Master's Golf Girl's Acadamy" (think private girl's highschool for aspiring golf pros). It is your job to train these sorry ass girly-girls into the next world champions.
First thing to do is choose your girl. There are 3 lovely ladies to pick from, and they each have their own story path to play through. The paths are technically seperate, but some events occur through all paths and you get to experience these events from different viewpoints. A rather nice way to do it in my opinion.
The basic flow of the game is Scene ----> Training ----> Match. There are 7 chapters, but its common to have up to 5 different matches in the later chapters, making GGBC quite a long game.
The story scenes are all done with very nicely drawn pictures. For example:
Due to my reliance on taking pics off the TV with a cheap digital camera, these are hurt by bad lighting and scanlines. But note the detail put into the designs and the great use of shading. This is a quality product through and through.
Also being a CD-ROM based game, we have full voice overs for everyone (well except the Coach of course).
The Story scenes are truly the heart of the game. In the beginning you'll see your girl struggling to even hit the tee-off, and eventually facing off with the "Professional Golf Queen of Japan." The 3 characters are your anime typical cliches, but they are always characterized in a serious and believable way.
The Training part of the game plays very similarly to other simulation games. You plan her training schedule, by picking 4 activities per training day. You can do up to 5 days before the game forces you to enter the next match.
The training options are nicely varied. There are the ones you'd expect "Driver Practice, Iron Practice, Putting Practice, Running, Weight-training" but also some silly ones such as "Mountain Climbing." There are also "resting" activities such as going to the beach, going shopping, and of course the hot-spring bath.
Once your girl has entered the Pro League, you get even more options to choose from.
Once you've made your decisions and start the training you will see some very nice CGs of the girl performing them. Most simulation games like these have silly animations that do nothing but waste time. I really like how GGBC basically just gives you a quick and pretty slideshow.
After the training has finished, the girl will tell you the results of the day and you can easily see the changes on the stats screen. If her abilities improved, they are highlighted in blue, if something decreased they are highlighted in red. Except for her happiness stat which is represented in hearts (very cute)
Stats Screen:
Whenever you do training, her stamina will naturally decrease, and will be regained slightly by doing rest activities. By carefully planning, it is possible to fully max out a girl's stats. (Miyuki's stats shown above are 100% maxed out, but this was very difficult to do)
Also her Confidence Stat is normally not affected by training. However, sometimes you'll get a lucky event which will boost her confidence.
The Stats themselves are VERY important. The difference in her performance was quite clear with even a 1 point difference in her stats. Talk about an indepth stat engine!
Stats also grow based on the girls natural abilities. For example one girl is all power. Raising her driving abilities is quite simple, but her putting skill starts at only 10, and goes up only 1 lousy point at a time.
After training its time to play golf. Before each match you'll have converstaions with the various opponents involved. A lot of heart was placed in every single one and it really shines during these scenes. This is especially true with the "boss fights" which are one-on-one match play tournaments.
The golf part of the game is also very nicely done for a 16-bit title. The game is displayed in triple-split screen so you don't have to mess with seperate views. The graphics aren't the greatest but they look nice and its easy to tell what you are looking at. This game also has the best green maps of any golf game I've ever played. Simple arrows show gradient changes, and more arrows mean a steaper slope. The phyisics are also really really good. Very accurate and predicatble bounce patterns based on the terrain, wind, and, ball-spin.
What makes this really interesting though, is that you are the Coach and NOT the actual player. You get to pick the club, direction, spin, and power. However the actual shot is up to her and is totally dependant on her stats. (In Round Mode, you have full control like any other golf game.)
I really like this very unique approach to the gameplay, as it requires you to properly train her and have good judgement about setting up shots. Simply stat boosting nor golf skill will work by themselves. For example, your girl can put 9 different types of spin on the ball, and only be reading the terrain and wind will you know which to choose. However without stats she may hit that ball straight into the water hazard anyway because she totally screwed up the shot.
In other words, while the girl gets better, you also have to get better at coaching. Its very immersive and feels totally awesome once she wins her first trophy and you see the fruits of your labors.
Also whenever she gets a bad shot (landing in the rough, bunker, water, OB) she will ask you for advice. You get 3 options and these will either raise or lower her confidence stat. They put a lot of fun into these and the bad answers are often quite hillarious. Here are some of my favorites:
Miyuki: "The ball is in the rough, Coach what do I do?"
Coach: "No one is looking, use your hand!"
Miyuki: "OB? I don't believe it! Coach what do I do next?"
Coach: "Hmm... I guess there's a forest there."
Miyuki: "Water Hazard? Oh no, what next Coach?"
Coach: "Time to put on that 2 piece bathing suit."
The stroke count per hole affects her happiness. Get a par or a birdie and she's happy. Get an Eagle or Hole-in-one and she's excitied. Get that insane Albatross and she's drunk with pleasure.
Hmm what more can I say? To put it simply, this game is fantastic, easily the very best simulation style B-Game I've ever played. Sure stuff like Tokimeki Memorial may have a million stats, but spending hours making yourself a pretty boy gets boring and lame.
In GGBC its not about you, its about helping your young protege achieve HER dream and helping HER beat her rivals. The characters are so well written that its impossible to not be sucked in. When Miyuki got her first Hole-in-one I was absolutely ecstatic! I actually went and got a beer out of the fridge and drank it in HER honor with a toast to HER great achievement. I have never cared so much about a videogame character. I felt priviliged that I was even allowed to be her coach.
Wow, what a game. Its been a long time since I've gotten this much into anything. GGBC is overflowing with heart and soul and its got a lot to love. Even if you hate golf, I'd still recommend this to anyone.
The video link once again:
Topic: Go! Go! Birdie Chance Review (Read 503 times)
